The Story of Doctor Dolittle

About the book

John Dolittle's preference for animals creates difficulties for his ordinary medical practice, but Polynesia the parrot helps him develop another way to work. Learning to communicate with different creatures opens relationships unavailable to people who treat them as silent dependants. News of illness among monkeys draws him and his animal companions into a voyage involving unfamiliar places, obstacles, and reciprocal assistance. Lofting's humour often comes from allowing an animal's practical knowledge to overturn a human assumption. This historical text also includes racial caricatures in its African episodes, which are part of the edition's perspective rather than a neutral account of people or places. The central imaginative appeal remains the transformation of medical care through listening, making language the beginning of cooperation across differences the surrounding world takes for granted.

• Communication
• Care and cooperation
• Animal perspectives

Why read it

For an inventive animal adventure built on the idea that understanding another creature changes what responsible care requires.

Original-era children's novel · English text